What does an asterisk (*) do in a CSS selector?
css, css-selectors
Solution
It is a wildcard, this means it will select all elements within that portion of the DOM.
For example, if I want apply margin to every element on my entire page you can use:
* {
margin: 10px;
}
You can also use this within sub-selections, for example the following would add a margin to all elements within a paragraph tag:
p * {
margin: 10px;
}
Your example is doing some css trickery to apply consecutive borders and margins to elements to give them multiple coloured borders. For example, a white border surrounded by a black border.
Problem
I found this CSS code and I ran it to see what it does and it outlined EVERY element on the page, Can someone explain what the asterisk `*` does in CSS? ``` <style> * { outline: 2px dotted red } * * { outline: 2px dotted green } * * * { outline: 2px dotted orange } * * * * { outline: 2px dotted blue } * * * * * { outline: 1px solid red } * * * * * * { outline: 1px solid green } * * * * * * * { outline: 1px solid orange } * * * * * * * * { outline: 1px solid blue } </style> ```